brilliantmumbler: It also hits creatures. That's...kind of important. I can see this being playable in Limited, 5 damage to the dome is a nice finisher or it gets rid of a late-game fatty that's threatening you.

For Limited, I suppose Red might be able to utilize this as either a finisher or as creature removal. Outside of Limited, well, no one really played Lava Axe all that often and this is merely a marginally better version.

So basically it's Lava Axe but at instant speed and costs 1 more. Because there's such a demand for that. I suppose that occasionally red burn will use this as a finisher, particularly with Guttersnipe but there's just plain better burn around.